Senior Backend (Product) Engineer

ArcTern Ventures; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

ev.energy is seeking a senior backend software engineer to design, build, and own scalable backend services that power our AI-driven energy platform. You will focus on robust APIs, data modeling, and production reliability while leveraging AI tools to accelerate development.

The role requires deep backend craft, ownership mindset, and the ability to ship high-impact features quickly. You will collaborate with product, design, and commercial teams to translate customer problems into solid

Qualifications

• 5+ years of Python backend development experience.
• Experience building production-grade backend services.
• Experience using AI coding tools (Claude, Cursor, or equivalent).
• Strong APIs, data modeling, databases, and system design knowledge.
• Ability to lead technical decisions without hierarchical reliance.
• Strong written and verbal communication with cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and own backend services and APIs powering our product.
• Make architectural decisions balancing speed and long-term maintainability.
• Take ownership of major technical areas and ship with confidence.
• Prototype backend solutions quickly using AI-enabled approaches.

Skills

Python

Backend design

AI integration

API design

Code review

Communication

Decision making

Tools

Django

FastAPI

Flask

Job description

About ev.energy
We are building the world's largest EV-centric virtual power plant (VPP). By connecting to vehicles, chargers, batteries, solar, and other distributed energy resources, we turn households into flexible grid assets that balance supply and demand, preventing blackouts and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
We are scaling rapidly across North America and Europe. We are moving fast, we are AI-first, and we are looking for builders who want to power the grid of the future.
About the role
Our core platform is built in Python and Django, so we're looking for experienced backend software engineers with strong Python skills; Django experience would be beneficial but we're open to other frameworks.
You'll be the person who takes a product idea and builds the systems, services, and infrastructure that make it real — reliable, scalable, and fast to iterate on. We're not looking for generalists who dabble across the stack — we're looking for someone with deep backend craft who can move fast, build with AI as a core part of how they work, and take genuine ownership of what they ship.
We're hiring for a number of roles across both of our Technology teams: new product development and customer delivery. We'd love to talk to you about both teams, understand what excites you, and place you into the team where we think you'll thrive best. Must-haves

• Strong Python experience (5+ years), with a clear track record of building and shipping production backend systems
• Experience building backend services with a Python framework (e.g Django, FastAPI or Flask)
• Strong experience building with AI — you've taken AI-powered features or products from concept through to production, and use AI coding tools (Claude, Cursor, or equivalent) as a genuine daily practice, not just occasionally
• Solid understanding of backend fundamentals — APIs, data modelling, databases, system design, and production reliability
• Experience leading technical decisions and influencing direction without relying on hierarchy
• Strong communication skills — written, verbal, and technical — credible with engineers, product, and commercial stakeholders
• High bias for action and comfort with ambiguity — you make good technical decisions with incomplete information

Nice to haves

• Experience in energy, utilities, cleantech, or adjacent domains
• Experience with Django
• Familiarity with EV fleet operations, home energy management, or grid services
• Front-end or full-stack capability that lets you prototype independently without blocking on others
• A portfolio of backend systems, tools, or products that prove how you work
• Direct customer conversation experience that's shaped what you've built

Backend engineering and architecture

• Design, build, and own backend services and APIs that power our product — from data models to infrastructure to production reliability
• Make sound architectural decisions that balance shipping speed against long-term maintainability and scale
• Take ownership of significant technical areas — from identifying the right approach to shipping and iterating in production

Building and shipping with AI

• Use AI coding tools (Claude, Cursor, or equivalent) as a core, daily part of how you write and ship code — not an occasional add-on
• Build working backend prototypes fast — good enough to validate with real usage, not over-engineered before it's proven
• Know when a rough implementation is right for the moment and when production-grade engineering is needed — and apply that judgment confidently
• Ship, measure, learn, iterate — kill what isn't working, double down on what is

Product and stakeholder collaboration

• Work closely with product, design, and commercial stakeholders to translate customer problems into technical solutions
• Act as a credible engineering voice in cross-functional discussions, pilot programmes, and technical scoping conversations
• Partner with Customer Support, Program Management, and Demand Generation to understand how customers find, adopt, and stay with ev.energy

Raising the bar

• Share what you learn openly, challenge how things are built, and raise the technical bar for the engineers around you
• Model what AI-native backend engineering looks like in practice — not in theory
• Contribute to a culture of experimentation, velocity, and commercial impact

Our tech stack

• Python and Django for our core platform
• Django REST Framework for our APIs
• React, React Native and TypeScript for our web and mobile app
• PostgreSQL, Redis and DynamoDB for data storage
• AWS for hosting, with infrastructure managed as code using Terraform
• Claude (via the Anthropic API) features to power AI